This past week focussed on conjunction, disjunction, negation, and implication.
While I find conjunction and disjunction pretty straightforward, implication, in this context, doesn't come as readily. I learn best by writing things out and working through them, so that's what I'm going to do for implication.
The truth table for the implication \( P \Rightarrow Q \) is:
\[
\begin{array}{ r r | c }
P & Q & P \Rightarrow Q \\ \hline
T & T & T \\
T & F & F \\
F & T & T \\
F & F & T \\
\end{array}\] As given in class, we also have \[ P \Rightarrow Q \;\Leftrightarrow\; \neg P \vee Q\]
With the above we can check that the contrapositive is the same as the regular implication:
\[\begin{align*}
\neg Q \Rightarrow \neg P &\;\Leftrightarrow\; \neg \neg Q \vee \neg P \\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; Q \vee \neg P \\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; \neg P \vee Q
\end{align*}\]
Next, let's translate an equivalence into conjunction and disjunction, starting by splitting the bi-implication into two implications:
\[\begin{align*}
P \Leftrightarrow Q &\;\Leftrightarrow\; ( P \Rightarrow Q ) \wedge (Q \Rightarrow P \\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; (\neg P \vee Q) \wedge (\neg Q \vee P)\\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; (\neg P \wedge \neg Q) \vee (\neg P \wedge P) \vee (Q \wedge \neg Q) \vee (Q \wedge P)\\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; (\neg P \wedge \neg Q) \vee (P \wedge Q)
\end{align*}\]What about the transitive property?
\[\begin{align*}
((P \Rightarrow Q) \wedge (Q \Rightarrow R)) &\;\Rightarrow\; (P\Rightarrow R)\\
(\neg P \vee Q) \wedge (\neg Q \vee R) &\;\Rightarrow\; (\neg P \vee R)\\
\neg ((\neg P\vee Q) \wedge (\neg Q \vee R) &\;\,\vee\; (\neg P \vee R)\\
\neg(\neg P\vee Q) \vee \neg(\neg Q \vee R) &\;\,\vee\; (\neg P \vee R)\\
(P \wedge \neg Q) \vee (Q \wedge \neg R) &\;\,\vee\; (\neg P \vee R)\\
\end{align*}\]
as a truth table:
\[\begin{array}{c c c | c c c | c }
P & Q & R & (P \wedge \neg Q) & (Q \wedge \neg R) & (\neg P \vee R) & (P \wedge \neg Q) \vee (Q \wedge \neg R) \vee (\neg P \vee R)\\\hline
T & T & T & F & F & T & T \\
T & T & F & F & T & F & T \\
T & F & T & T & F & T & T \\
T & F & F & T & F & F & T \\
F & T & T & F & F & T & T \\
F & T & F & F & T & T & T \\
F & F & T & F & F & T & T \\
F & F & F & F & F & T & T \\
\end{array}\]So it's a tautology. Great. (It would have been easier to just go straight to a truth table, but let's call it "good practice").
Finally, how does it look for \( P\Rightarrow (Q\Rightarrow R)\)?
\[\begin{align*}
P\Rightarrow (Q\Rightarrow R) &\;\Leftrightarrow\; \neg P \vee (\neg Q \vee R) \\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; (\neg P \vee \neg Q) \vee R \\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; \neg (P \wedge Q) \vee R \\
&\;\Leftrightarrow\; (P \wedge Q) \Rightarrow R\\
\end{align*}
\]
That's all I can really think of right now. A lot of this stuff is easier to show by just writing up a truth table, but I learn better if I can think about things multiple ways. Also, a
truth table would show that \[ P \Rightarrow (Q \Rightarrow R)) \;\Leftrightarrow\; (P\Rightarrow R) \vee (Q\Rightarrow R)\] but I haven't figured out how to get there by manipulating terms.